Jeff Hanna, an American singer-songwriter is the husband of musician Matraca Berg.
Born July 11, 1947 in Detroit, Michigan, Hanna moved with his family to Long Beach, California in 1962. While in high school there, he and some friends started a jug band that subsequently emerged as the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.
The band’s first single, “Buy for Me the Rain,” garnered success and provided them with a platform to showcase their talents. The band then appeared in the 1969 musical western “Paint Your Wagon,” and toured with a diverse range of artists, from The Doors to Bill Cosby, Dizzy Gillespie, and Jack Benny.
In 1970, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band band released their second LP, featuring their most famous song, “Mr. Bojangles.” Despite the song’s unconventional nature, it reached No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100, cementing the band’s place in the music industry.
Aside from Hanna’s singing career, he has over 100 composition credits on various albums. In 2006, his composition “Bless the Broken Road,” co-written with Marcus Hummon and Bobby Boyd, won a Grammy Award for Best Country Song. Also, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s recording of “Mr. Bojangles” was inducted into the GRAMMY Hall of Fame in 2010.
Jeff Hanna and Matraca Berg met on tour with Clint Black in the late 1980s.
The pair reportedly started dating in 1991 after divorcing their partners.
Jeff Hanna and Matraca Berg walked down the aisle on December 5, 1993 in the United States.
The couple now resides in Nashville.